AP EXPLAINS: What flight of South Sudan's rebel leader means

FILE - In this Sunday, Dec. 29 2013 file photo, displaced people gather around a water truck to fill containers, at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the capital Juba, South Suda. Sudan's political limbo continued Friday, Aug. 19, 2016 after rebel leader Riek Machar fled the country earlier in the week. Last month government and rebel forces clashed in the capital, killing hundreds of civilians and Machar was controversially removed as First Vice President. Machar's departure puts South Sudan's peace deal into disarray at the same time the country is suffering from a humanitarian crisis. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis,file) (The Associated Press)

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FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010 file photo, Dr. Riek Machar, Vice President of the Government of South Sudan, presides over an all-southern-parties meeting in Juba, Sudan South. Sudan's political limbo continued Friday, Aug. 19, 2016 after rebel leader Riek Machar fled the country earlier in the week. Last month government and rebel forces clashed in the capital, killing hundreds of civilians and Machar was controversially removed as First Vice President. Machar's departure puts South Sudan's peace deal into disarray at the same time the country is suffering from a humanitarian crisis. (AP Photo/Pete Muller, file) (The Associated Press)

KAMPALA, Uganda – South Sudan, the world's newest country, was in political limbo Friday after rebel leader Riek Machar fled earlier this week. His whereabouts remained unclear, as a spokesman for Machar and the United Nations said he was in neighboring Congo but the Congo government said it had no knowledge of him being there. His departure puts that peace deal into disarray at the same time as the country's humanitarian crisis worsens.

THE SITUATION IN JUBA

Machar and many of his supporters fled the capital after last month's fighting between government and rebel forces, in which hundreds of civilians were killed and raised fears of a return to civil war. The fighting displaced at least 15,000 people in the capital. Around 12,500 fled to U.N. camps in Juba, where food remains scarce. Witnesses told The Associated Press that soldiers in government army uniforms raped women who ventured outside the camps to collect food, as U.N. peacekeepers stood by.

After the fighting Machar was replaced as first vice president, a post he held for just a few months under a fragile peace deal. Machar has been replaced as first vice president by another official in his party, Taban Deng, but that appointment has not been accepted by many of his supporters. A spokesman for Machar's opposition SPLM-IO party, Mabior Garang, told AP that the move was "illegal," and claimed that some officials who nominated Taban as first vice president were "coerced by security officials." Taban has pledged to step down if Machar returns to the capital. Machar says he will return to Juba only after a regional peacekeeping force secures the capital. Last week, the U.N. Security Council voted to send 4,000 additional peacekeepers to South Sudan with a strengthened mandate to provide security. President Salva Kiir's government at first rejected the decision, saying it violated the country's sovereignty. But in recent days, the government has been more receptive to the U.N. plan.

Machar's flight from South Sudan could give him more visibility and increase pressure on the international community to send in the regional peacekeepers.

THE SITUATION IN OTHER PARTS OF SOUTH SUDAN

Most South Sudanese who are Dinka, the largest ethnic group of South Sudan's 12.5 million people, support their tribesman Kiir. Most ethnic Nuer, the second largest group, support Machar's opposition party, with some notable exceptions.

There has been sporadic fighting in parts of the country since Machar and his forces fled, especially in the south. Local and opposition officials in the Yei region say clashes have taken place there. The region had little violence during the country's civil war, which began in December 2013. The fighting in Yei indicates that violence has shifted to a new front following Machar's disappearance.

A NEW WAVE OF REFUGEES FLEE

The displaced are not just in Juba. Fighting in the town of Wau in June prompted 75,800 people to flee, and they remained displaced in the area as of early August. There are also 190,000 South Sudanese living at U.N. camps across the country. At these sites, U.N. peacekeepers have been criticized for failing to protect civilians

Around 70,000 South Sudanese have crossed the border into Uganda since the July clashes, adding to the more than 2.3 million people who have been displaced since the civil war began, according to the U.N. The new refugees have overwhelmed humanitarian agencies that are already short on funding.

Earlier this week, the U.N. said it was forced to cut food assistance in half for 200,000 South Sudanese in Uganda. "Never has the gap between what is being provided and what is needed been larger," said acting UNHCR Representative to Uganda Bornwell Kantande.